Lucinda Williams, World Cafe Live, Philadelphia, 3/10/2016
Saw Lucinda Williams last night at the World Café. Her backup band was Buick 6 and they were stellar. Guitarist Stuart Mathis, former lead guitarist for the Wallflowers and who could have been a double for Donnie in the Big Lebowski, brought a weathered grind to their sound, employing various tones reminiscent of Santana, SRV, and Frisell. He is a monster. They played a set without Lucinda to start the evening and I’m so glad I made it to the opening of the show, where my usual routine is to time the headliner and arrive just before they go on. Last night’s early arrival rewarded us with a blistering set of mostly instrumentals that never lapsed into jam band mediocrity.
On the way to the show, I voiced my desire to hear Lucinda sing Metal Firecracker, my favorite of her earlier work. Then, when she walked on stage and the band dropped into the first notes of the song, I felt that the night was destined to be a memorable event. I wasn’t let down. Her voice is transfixing, the notes lingering just long enough to practically drip into the next phrase. The songs off her current album played well live, particularly the powerful Dust set to a poem authored by her recently deceased poet father. Another highlight was when Amos Lee joined them for an otherworldly rendition of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come. As Lucinda stated, why isn’t Amos Lee more popular? His voice is a perfect foil to Lucinda’s, with subtle fluctuations that ride along with her southern speckled phrasings.
After the Sam Cooke cover, which started the encore, the band led Lucinda into rousing versions of Springsteen’s The Rising and Young’s Keep On Rockin’ in the Free World, as the crowd sang along with equal fervor.
On the ride home, I tried to place her in the lexicon of performers I’ve seen in my lifetime, and I kept coming back to Nina Simone for some reason. That voice, and a touch of performance diva, kept us enthralled and wanting more. She walks a performance tightrope with the crowd not sure if she’s going to make it to the next song. Whether it was the red wine she sipped throughout the set or just her general disposition, the effect was mesmerizing.
Were I one to keep a bucket list, I could now check off seeing Lucinda live. It was that good.